Papa leaves the dogs with a new dog sitter who has no idea how to care for them. Will the dogs ever get walked, fed, or cared for properly? The Dog Sitter , the fifth book in T he Adventures of Lucky and Mr. Pickle series, continues the second of three trilogies. Papa shocks the dogs with an unexpected announcement requiring a dog sitter to care for them. The initial excitement of a fun day while Papa’s away quickly turns upside-down. Mr. Pickle’s rebellious nature resents Papa’s reason for leaving. His stubborn attitude requires Lucky to teach his little brother to be happy for others. Add an unexpected storm, and the dog-sitting day goes from bad to worse. How will the surprise dog sitter handle caring for the dogs when everything starts to fall apart? The Adventures of Lucky and Mr. Pickle: The Dog Sitter is a story of empathy, patience, love, and family. The book shows children the importance of being selfless and happy when others get what they want. I published my first novel in 2018. A quick look at my books since then shows a migration of genres from horror to thriller and drama. I've had the idea for  The Adventures of Lucky and Mr. Pickle  since 2011. I can't believe launching my first children's novel took me over a decade. The target age group for the book is 8-12. Parents can read the story to children from 8-10, and advanced readers can handle it from there. As mentioned in the book description,  The Adventures of Lucky and Mr. Pickle  brings up multiple subjects. Having two dogs - one old and disabled and the other young and inexperienced - allows me to show children how differences don't have to be scary. Both dogs are adopted, and they are different breeds. So, they must learn to accept and trust each other to get through the stormy night. Both learn lessons by the end of the story. One of my early eight-year-old readers didn't like that Lucky was such an old dog. His dad told me their family had a senior dog, and he loved that the story addressed this issue. Families with children who are adopted, disabled, or blended may find this book helpful. There are also lessons on overcoming adversity. I hope you enjoy what will be the first of many adventures for Lucky and Mr. Pickle.   MJ grew up in New England. He spent many of those summers reading horror classics from Stephen King and thrillers by the likes of Michael Crichton and James Patterson, and dreamed of one day becoming an author.  The Tallow Series - his first trilogy - was based on a nightmare. The books follow a set of friends as they head to Cape Cod and find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. While working on the trilogy, MJ attended the intensive three-day "Story" seminar by Robert McKee. Robert is a legend in Hollywood. His seminar breaks down all of the major components of the story: character, scene, setting, etc. Cramming a semester's worth of information into 30 hours is overwhelming and invigorating.  MJ's first novel,  Tallow - An Urban Legend , earned Readers' Favorite highest 5-star rating. The reviewer compared MJ's writing style to that of the great Roald Dahl. Humbling, to say the least. After completing the Tallow Series, Level 4 Press hired MJ to co-author the gripping drama  FASTER . Dawn of Eve , MJ's next solo novel, is his tribute to every book, show, and movie about a creepy doll. Scary dolls always freaked MJ out, so it only made sense that he wrote a book about one. The book also received a 5-star rating from Readers' Favorite. In 2022,  Skin Deep  launched as an episodic YA thriller on Kindle's Vella app before transitioning to e-book and paperback. Jump to 2023, and MJ has switched genres and is going after . . . children's books! His passion for dogs shines through in what he hopes will be a new long-running series of stories. MJ finds inspiration in the most unlikely places. His passion for quality storytelling includes a huge interest in movies. MJ's dream is to have his books made into films - perhaps with him writing the screenplay. You can follow MJ on multiple social media platforms. He also has a shop on Redbubble, where he converts his favorite pictures, including book cover designs, into merchandise.